I love keeping my blog up and running for many reasons. I love that I'm documenting our daily lives so that we'll always have a record. How fun it will be for all of us to go back and read through it years from now. I love that I'm writing down the funny things that my kids do and say. And most importantly, I love that I'm able to share our lives with family and friends, near and far. My blog also serves as a journal, a place I can write down my thoughts and share my feelings ... it's very therapeutic! It's probably the biggest consumer of my free time, but I justify it because it's important to me on many levels.
Some people have asked me, "What if all your entries somehow get lost in cyber space?" ... It's a scary thought, right? But I've always responded with this: At the end of each year, I plan on turning my blog into a blog book. That way, all my pictures and stories will also be preserved in a tangible book, sort of like a scrap book. I first heard about this back in January on a photographer's website.
The site that "slurped" her blog into a book was called Blurb.com. She described how it worked and showed a picture of the finished product (if you click on her link, you can read all about it and check it out). I thought this looked pretty cool.
The site that "slurped" her blog into a book was called Blurb.com. She described how it worked and showed a picture of the finished product (if you click on her link, you can read all about it and check it out). I thought this looked pretty cool.Since then, a few people have mentioned that this software isn't exactly user-friendly. I kept ignoring them, thinking that with time, all the bugs would be worked out and the service would be perfected. I'm such an optimist. Come on, we live in the year 2008. There are technological geniuses out there that MUST know how important it is for people to convert their blogs into books. Right? Right? I'm not so sure ... and that's why I'm VERY annoyed today.
Knowing that I'll be "slurping" my blog into a book come January, I decided to check in on the website today and watch the instructional video on how it's done. About 1 minute and 20 seconds into the video, it instructs you to choose your blog platform. It says we support "Blogger, Live Journal, OurStory, Typepad, and Wordpress.com" ... all information I already knew. BUT THEN, it threw me a curve ball. At the bottom of the screen, a message appeared:
"Sorry. We no longer support Wordpress or Blogger."
WHAT????? You no longer support Blogger?? My heart sank, my stomach dropped. No, no, no. This was devastating news. Then I thought, WHEN and HOW did this happen? This information wasn't very easy to find ... I started sifting through the FORUMS on the site and came across more information. Looks like they had some bugs in the software that created problems back in September. They kept trying to fix them. On October 21st, one of the staff members announced that support for Blogger was discontinued indefinitely. The reason was that Blogger's API (Application Programming Interface) keeps changing and therefore breaking its connection with the Blurb's software which is called BookSmart.
I was very upset to read this. I REALLY want to turn my blog into a book. I read through some more posts on the forums and it looks like some people are able to get it to work. But some have almost finished their books only to have it stop working at the end. I guess it was easier for the site (blurb.com) to stop offering support to these people having difficulties, since they couldn't control the changes made by blogger. So, maybe I could use this site in the future and give it a go ... but I'd hate to waste a bunch of time, only for it NOT to work out.
I spent a little time searching the web, trying to find another site that would do something similar ... I found NOTHING!!! I'm so disappointed. I can only hope that this service will be available, someday soon. I guess I could always use a different format that IS supported by Blurb.com (Live Journal or Typepad), but that would probably be a pain to switch. And I think it would cost money. Personally, I think Blogger should create this type of service. There are SOOOOO many people out there who use blogger for their family blogs who would probably utilize a service like this. Don't you agree? I'd love to hear your comments!
